


The Devil's Angel

by Ladyofwarandmercy



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-12 22:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5683798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladyofwarandmercy/pseuds/Ladyofwarandmercy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SHIELD plans to kidnap Grant ward's long-lost sister, in hopes she will eagerly help the team kill her brother. That was the plan....</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

This was supposed to be an easy “grab.” Some careful digging through some old records finally located Caroline Ward, aka “Meredith Stone,” known on the website of the Dallas call-girl agency as “Angel.” Phil Coulson would hire “Angel” for the night, the team would subdue her, and they would have her back at the Playground, with any help she could give about her brother. The war against Ward, or rather, that thing that took over Ward, wasn’t going so well. They had agreed to let Thomas go, and any information he had was less current. Caroline, however, was discovered on old surveillance footage of the SHIELD dorms when her brother was still in residence. Prostitutes, even ones as expensive as “Angel,” disappeared all the time. They figured, like Thomas, Caroline was also hiding from Grant Ward, so the team would offer her a new start in a new city. As Coulson waited for his “appointment” in the nice Las Colinas hotel room, he played a music video on his laptop. He was getting a bit old for modern music, but he sort of liked this 80s throwback song by M83. The video featured telekinetic kids with glowing eyes. As the saxophone started to play over the final instrumental of the song, Coulson could hear the knock at the hotel room door. Fitz scooted into the bathroom, and May was doubtlessly getting ready for “backup.”

 

When Coulson went to open the door, he could not help but notice that Caroline was stunning, and very obviously a Ward. Something odd flicked across the woman’s eyes, but she plastered a smile over the thought, and said, “My name is Angel.” She closed the door and locked both deadbolts, before turning to Coulson with a grin that had suddenly gone vulpine. “And I don’t intend to come quietly….John. Or should I say…Phil?”Phil was picked up like a rag doll by an invisible force and thrown against the wall, the door to the bathroom was flung open, and Fitz was thrown against the other wall. May burst in the room, and was telekinetically flung against all four walls until she slumped unconscious next to Coulson. In a perfect Dallas accent, Caroline twanged, “Bitch, you have to touch me to hurt me, and that ain’t happening.” Daisy ran through the door at that moment, hands up, ready to throw seismic waves. “I don’t have to touch you to hurt you either, Caroline,” Daisy snapped. Everybody took a breath, and relaxed a moment, as Lincoln came in the room.

 

“So,” Caroline broke the silence, “Y’all want me to help you kill my brother, or…. what? You’ll kill me too? Gonna crush my chest like Lefty there did to Grant? Oh yeah, I can read minds too, as well as throw stuff. That fish oil did some amazing things to me. Which means you can’t make me do a goddamn thing. Even Sparky and Miss Shakey here… Oh, my God. Only Sparks here can even block me. You actually thought I’d be grateful for a chance to be rid of Grant? Are you fucking kidding me? Really?” Daisy could see Caroline was about to lose her temper again, and brought her hands back up in preparation. “Caroline,” she said calmly, “He’s not even really Grant anymore. Some…thing took over his body.” The flare of anger in Ward’s sister subdued as she turned and looked at Daisy as if seeing her for the first time. Daisy didn’t know how to let a telepath read her, but figured she had nothing to hide. Caroline nodded and put her hands down. But just as the tension started to break, the elevator down the hall dinged, and all the Gifted prepared for a fight.

 

Surprisingly, the figure who appeared at the door was Jemma, a little out of breath. “Jemma, what are you doing here?” Coulson called out. Caroline turned and gave him a baleful look. “Shut the fuck up, I’m listening to her.” After about a minute, Jemma and Caroline nodded at one another. Fitz looked at Jemma quizzically and asked, “Care to share with the rest of the class, or are you and the class clown here just going to pass notes and giggle?” Caroline shook her head, “I can read it better than I speak it. Something about tur-gin or something.” Jemma smiled and nodded, “Terrigen, actually. It was what was in those fish oil pills, and it was what transformedour Daisy and Lincoln. It re-wrote your DNA, Miss Ward, so we can’t run a paternity test to be sure. But you were born in 1977, prior to the first successful in-vitro fertilization, and you bear a very strong resemblance to the paternal grandmother who was your namesake.” Caroline smiled sadly and looked at the floor. “Gramsy,” she muttered. Jemma nodded sympathetically, but added, “Which means you and Grant had the same parents. I do wonder about Thomas—“ Caroline cut her off, “Thomas was a product of an affair Mom had. But I see where you are going. If I’m what you are calling Inhuman, so is Grant. Thomas may or may not be.” “But we need to find him anyway,” Daisy added. “There’s a teleporting Inhuman serial killer out there looking for other Inhumans—-“ Caroline smiled, “OH, The Rasta Mon from Hell! I met him. Tried to hire me out, then kill me. I won our little encounter, but I got the Hell out of Austin afterwards! Right, well, if he’s after Thomas I guess we need to find him…" Caroline inhaled, and it was as if the temperature in the room had dropped. "Wait. You were worried that if you gave this terrigen stuff to Grant that he might fight off that thing that’s controlling his body, but he might survive with powers and you couldn’t….kill him. No. I will not kill Grant, especially if he has his mind back. That is a non-starter. I have TWO words for that. Fuck. Off.” Coulson was finally seeing one of everything (mostly) and called out, “Your father was in a walker when Grant killed him. And this was before that thing took him over. Doesn’t this mean anything to you?” Caroline looked at him, sneered, and spat,

 

“It means the arthritis from when Grant screwed up his knee caught up to him. Good. Grant attacked my father because he saw Father raping me. I hope Daddy Dearest was alive when he burned. Christian too. Grant ended up in Juvie because he came to rescue me when Father almost killed me. Christian almost kept me from getting away. So Grant trapped him in the house and gave him something bigger to worry about. Years later, I find out he’s at SHIELD Academy of all places. I was sent there for a senior’s birthday party, and saw him on his way to the bathroom. I got him to get me some fake IDs, so I could stay off the radar. He referred me to his friend Garrett for the IDs. Garrett…..had a price. And I never had the heart to tell Grant what Garrett did to me. So if you want big crocodile tears over my family, you can shove that notion up your ass. No, I won’t help you with Grant, and I won’t help you find Thomas.” Two muffled cries and two sickening thumps heralded Caroline taking out Bobbi and Hunter outside the door. She grabbed her jacket, and called out, “Good DAY, sir!” as she walked out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

Daisy almost chickened out in front of the condominium door. She almost sent Lincoln, who had had more experience dealing with telepaths to the condominium on an island just north of Jacksonville, Florida. But the time for chickening out passed, as the door began to open without her even having to knock. Caroline looked like Hell, and had a huge, noise-canceling headset on her head. Something ambient escaped enough from the headphones that Daisy could hear it. All the lights in the condominium were out, and Caroline Ward was in a bathrobe and nightshirt in the middle of the day. Despite this, Caroline smiled and beckoned Daisy in.

 

“Come on in, kid. Sorry I’m in such shambles. I’ll explain as soon as this round of meds kicks in. And no, you did the right thing coming up to me all noisy like your mind is. If you’d sent Sparky, I’d get suspicious, and could have gotten violent. I can answer one question of yours already. Yes, I was the one who got to Thomas, and yes I sent him to a safer place. And you can understand why I won’t tell you where that is. The headache here is from what I had to do to cover his and my tracks.” Daisy worried what exactly that meant. Her brother Grant, long before he was taken by the monster, had a rather violent idea of “covering his tracks.” Caroline removed the headset after a couple of tense minutes and breathed. “Relax, Daisy. It’s a new trick I accidentally figured out one day. I can hear more than I can speak, telepathically speaking, but if I concentrate on a memory, I can—okay, you’re a techie, it’s like corrupting that part of the hard drive where the memory resides. No harm is done to the guy who sold Tommy his new ID. That memory is smoothed over with a gaggle of crap from other memories in his head, so it’s not like it becomes some big hole in his mind that would stand out to a superficial telepathic probe. You couldn’t probably tell me what you had for dinner three weeks ago, so if you are drawing a blank on about four hours of your life ten days ago, it doesn’t end up being some kind of mystery. Any telepath who actually figures out where and when the memory is supposed to be and tries to pull the memory out just gets the crap. It’s a neat trick. But when I do it, hello migraine.”

 

Caroline grunted a bit and rubbed her temples. Daisy noticed the dark condominium was actually rather nice, and simply had the aura of an owner who was temporarily ill. “You probably know my other team members are at Fort Clinch right now. We were going to take you out to dinner, but are you up to it?” Caroline shook her head. “It’s too bad, really,” Caroline muttered, “I was going to actually take all of you out to the Crab Trap instead. The view is wonderful and the food is delicious. But not until this headache goes away. I do want to hear what Jemma has to say. Could she come here?” Daisy nodded, and texted Jemma. About thirty minutes later, Daisy met Jemma before she got to Caroline’s door. “Yeah, Jem. Caroline is having some neural backlash from modifying that gangster’s memories, so I figured I’d talk to you before you knocked on the door.” At that moment, Lincoln rounded the corner. Before Daisy could object, Lincoln stood still, closed his eyes for a second, smiled, and patted a bag he was carrying. “It’s cool, ladies. Caroline knows I’m here to doctor.” When all three entered the condo, Lincoln and Jemma went straight to work. Soon, Caroline had her feet up, and her bathrobe off, with needles poking out of her skin, washing down some pills with a glass of orange juice. She seemed more at ease already. “So Jemma, you have some kind of proposition for me?” Caroline asked. Jemma nodded, and began:

 

“I know Grant is-er-was, um, is your brother. And I know you don’t want to harm him if you can avoid it. You can gather from our minds why the rest of us may not share that sentiment.” Caroline looked at Daisy, who looked away. “But right now, we need your help, Caroline. Enough that Daisy has made a decision. If your brother survives the terrigenesis process and has fought off the Hive, we will not go after you or your brother. You will have to guarantee that Grant behaves and does not contact us again.” Everybody paused for a second, and Caroline could feel a slight spike of wordless pain from Daisy. Caroline took a sip from the water bottle in her hand as she picked the right words. “Last I saw you guys, this Phil guy was in charge, and I don’t see him giving Daisy that kind of authority.” The answer was in all their minds, Caroline could see, but she had learned sometimes the process of turning thoughts into words focused the picture. There was silence for about half an hour. It was Daisy who finally spoke, after sending Lincoln on a quick grocery run:

 

“You can see in my mind every complicated, frustrated, tender, harsh, and angry thing I think of when I think of Grant. He made me the agent I am today, and was everything I wanted to be, and everything I needed to avoid, all at once. Yes, I was falling in love with him, and he broke my heart. I think his feelings for me were real, and that, oh that was the worst part of all. I told Phil I would never forgive him for what he did to the team. But that wasn’t some personally-signed license from me for Phil to go out and kill Grant. It was something you said back in Dallas that finally got me to lean on Fitz to tell me what really happened on the planet. I couldn’t handle that Phil lied to me, that he had intimidated Fitz into silence, and…That part of me who was some girl falling in love with her first Supervising Officer could not stay near the man who killed him in cold blood, whatever the reason. So authority at SHIELD was split, and while Coulson was sent on leave, I was assigned my own, Inhuman-only team.” Caroline nodded, but gave Jemma an odd look. In Jemma’s mind, Caroline saw a memory. In it, there was a glistening, translucent crystal, and the realization of a tear in Jemma’s glove. A terrified tearing off of the torn glove, and clear skin underneath. With the bare tip of her index finger, Jemma touched the crystal again, pulled her hand back, and watched…..nothing.

 

“I found out recently that while I have not yet been exposed to terrigen, I was able to touch an object only Inhumans can touch without dying,” Jemma confirmed. “I am as Inhuman as the rest of the team, and I figured it was best if I went with Daisy, and kept that side of things from Fitz and the others as much as possible.” Daisy chose to go to the bathroom at this point, but Jemma continued, “Fitz and I had to sign off on this decision. Fitz is a gentler soul than I, and was open to the deal. I was less likely to agree, until we met you. More like, when I met you after having done much of the research on you and your past.” Caroline gave Jemma a dim look, as she turned on a lamp in the room to its lowest setting, as the sunset was making the apartment almost too dark to navigate. “You judge me for the decisions I made? Yes, I gave up a prestigious scientific scholarship to turn tricks for almost twenty years.” Jemma fixed Caroline with a look of disgust, but Caroline could sense none of the disgust was for her. “Daisy told me what an abusive or absent family could do to a person. What it did to Grant, what it did to her. But when I found that out about you. My God, we could have been colleagues all these years, and if you did….that to get away from the Wards, why…why wouldn’t Grant have ended up joining HYDRA?” There was a choodle from Daisy’s phone as Daisy herself walked back into the living room. “The rest of the folks are back at the hotel, and Lincoln is grabbing a pizza for us on his way back from the store. Lincoln wants to know if you’re up to pizza, and if not, what you want.” Caroline smiled, “This needle stuff is working nicely. Tell him pizza is fine, and there is a bottle I opened of some Chardonnay in the fridge. Have him get something that will go with that. Don’t worry, Jemma. I know I shouldn’t drink right now. The bottle is for the rest of you. It’s just going to go bad waiting for me to feel better. “

 

When Lincoln got back with a white-sauce pizza, Daisy, Jemma, and Caroline were already talking like old friends. The place was dimly lit, but it was an improvement. As Daisy doled out pizza, Lincoln sent sparks down a few of the needles, then removed them for the night. Lincoln drove the two tipsy ladies home and let Caroline rest.

 

The next morning, Caroline was up to the trip, and the team ended up in one of the barracks rooms at the old Confederate fort. It was not that busy a day, so nobody noticed when Lincoln concentrated, and a ball of energy filled the room. “So you weren’t just tourists?” Caroline confirmed. “Yup,” Lincoln answered cheerily, “Did some Civil War re-enactment back in Ohio. Wore more blue than gray, but I noted that historical sites like this, especially ones this far from the nearest town, don’t have a lot of wiring. It’s too far for a homeless person to break in here to sleep, and most of the artifacts here where people can just walk in like this are replicas or not very valuable. Not worth a burglar alarm. I can EMP and damage microphones without damaging electrical stuff our hosts want to still work, which was why I had you leave your cell phone in the car. The crashing waves outside the fort would complicate any attempt at a parabolic microphone, so this is a perfect place to discuss the trickier parts of our plan without being overheard.” Daisy produced some printed maps, they gathered around, and planned.


	3. Chapter 3

After feeling his heart stop, Grant knew oblivion, then…..watching as an observer as the Other/s used his body as a host, regenerating it in ways that made Grant cringe, even though Grant was never one to cringe. There were two other voices, other of what the Other/s called “useful.” But mentally, he was as restrained as they were, to be used by the Other/s at will. He was helpless as the Other/s attacked Jemma and….CARRIE. What was Carrie doing here? And then…….

The shattering of something like glass…a crystal? Something emitted from Grant’s pores, covering him entirely. Then Fire. And screaming, and more fire. Grant had rejected the Catholic Church of his upbringing, but dammit, it was all true. He was screaming in a lake of fire, as the Other/s screamed around him. He was in the fires of Hell and burning with Hell-fire. He screamed in terror, and occasionally, got control of his own voice to do so, as the fire weakened the Other/s. The other voices appeared in his mind

_(Hey, like, this isn’t actually hurting)_

_(My dear boy, you are right. Our flesh burns and is not consumed)_

Grant was suddenly in control of his body, the Other/s more hurt than he by the flames. Through those flames, he saw a blackish, statue-like figure, and Carrie on her knees, whimpering in fright. Grant closed his eyes, and concentrated. When he opened them again, the fires were gone, and he stood naked in a strange room, as his sister’s face brightened. “YES! Pyrokinesis, baby! Are you okay?” Grant didn’t quite know how to answer, and Carrie’s expression turned suspicious. “Look, Grant, if that’s you in there, I’m sorry. I’ll ask forgiveness rather than permission, but I have to be sure.”

Grant felt as if Carrie, like the Other/s had shoved him back in that mental closet with the other voices. Carrie’s mental eye overturned his mind like he once ransacked an apartment in Brussels looking for a thumb drive. He could sense her annoyance and disapproval of many of his choices, and her heartbreak at the choices she could see he felt he had no other choice but to make. She found the other voices, and was poised to destroy one of them when…

_(Hey, my name is Will, I was the host before your brother. You’re going to find another guy named Nigel. He’s cool, too. Hive found us useful, and stored our personalities in your brother’s brain. Nigel’s from, what, 1870?)_

_(1895, Will, 1895. I am a cultural anthropologist, Madam, and it is a pleasure to meet you)_

_(Oh yeah, that’s right. I was just the muscle on a NASA mission, and Nigel was HYDRA, but he says he’s seen enough that he doesn’t drink the Koolaid anymore)_

_(I thought you liked this Koolaid, Will)_

_(Jonestown, Nigel. You remember getting Hive to read about Jonestown?)_

_(That was Flav-or-Aid, not Koolaid)_

The mild bickering alone convinced Carrie to leave the other voices alone as she hunted…..and found….

“You see him too?” she spoke aloud.

Grant nodded. Carrie found a lone parasite---more than enough in time to re-spawn the rest of Hive, and a sole survivor of Grant’s fiery terrigenesis. Grant cringed at the memory of what Hive was doing to her mind before….Jemma(?) threw that crystal thing.

_(Jemma? She’s here?)_

The smile on Carrie’s face turned vulpine. “Oho, Not so powerful right now, are you? Dance for me, you little asshole.” Grant felt a pain in his bellybutton as a worm slithered out. A slight crunching noise came from the black statue. Grant grabbed the worm and held it out at arm’s reach. The parasite trembled, but was now too weak to resist Carrie’s compulsion. Grant strangled it, to the cheers of the other voices. A gasp and slight shriek came from the statue.

_(Jemma? Ask Carrie if that’s Jemma. GRANT, ASK HER!)_

Grant looked at the statue, its face crumbled off to reveal something…reptilian. Grant looked skeptically and asked, “Jemma?”

“S’me. I think I’m going to be sick.” The statue/cocoon shook some more and pieces flaked off, revealing more scales. Carrie smiled and walked over to Jemma. “About time, kid. You taking that long means you’re going to be useless once the others figure out how to get in. I’ve got a place for you, Jem. Grant, can you let bygones be bygones and…” Grant cut her off, “Absolutely Jemma’s coming with us, Carrie. Will is threatening me with a migraine and…..despite it all, she’s my friend, too. Jemma’s eyes widened, and Grant remembered he was naked. “Just…ah, let me get dressed first.” As Grant finally found a semi-fitting pair of pants and a shirt, and Caroline helped Jemma chip the rest of the way out of her cocoon, a FOOM! announced that HYDRA had figured out a way in the control center. Shortly after the explosion, the whole area shook, and they could hear one of the planes taking off. “Well, there goes our ride,” Caroline quipped, as the room began to fill with HYDRA soldiers. All three ducked behind a console, as Caroline used her telekinesis to drop heavy objects, and Grant tried to project his pyrokinesis. Ultimately, Grant picked a chain up off the ground, set it on fire, and fought the soldiers hand-to hand. As they got away, to a car in the parking lot Grant was able to hot-wire, Grant was barely able to get Jemma in an oversized hoodie, quickly shave his beard in an uncharacteristic manner with a razor he somehow stole from a bathroom, and collapse in the “shotgun” seat of the car, before both Jemma and Grant went unconscious.

Dallas traffic during rush hour was bad enough for Caroline’s temper, but coupled with a wanted fugitive and Jemma the Lizard, it was all Caroline could do to keep away from traffic cameras, and make sure Jemma kept the hoodie on. Finally, she pulled up into a nondescript shopping/residential center, focused on New Age shops, and tried to nudge Grant awake. Torpor seemed to have taken both of the new Inhumans, so she put the sunshade up, cracked the windows, and went up to the acupuncturist’s shop. She quietly pressed a button on her keychain as she knocked, and waited for Dr Chan to come from downstairs. His emerald-green eyes in a face otherwise straight out of a Chinese classical painting met Caroline’s own chocolate brown eyes. “Seriously, Caroline? You are bringing in a wanted fugitive who was a recent host for the Hive, and a SHIELD agent? Why don’t you invite Jiaying for tea while you’re at it?” Caroline could sense Dr. Chan Delun was simply being a grump, or knew how much Grant meant to Caroline. His was one of the few minds Caroline had difficulties reading accurately, which helped her immensely when Caroline had to adjust to her own new-found Gift a year ago. Delun could see the twitches Caroline’s face started making when she was about thirty minutes from a migraine, so he found a couple of the residents downstairs who looked normal enough to drag Grant and Jemma out of the car and into the shop. Chan and Terry Wilson, a psychology grad student who often hung out at Dr Chan’s, got to work on Jemma, Grant, and alleviating Caroline’s coming migraine.


	4. Chapter 4

As Jemma remembered, everything was going according to plan, until it didn’t. Grant Ward got his date with the Terrigen Crystal, but it was Jemma who had to give it to him, after the Hive had read Caroline’s presence too quickly. Daisy had to drop a roof on half the facility so that her part of the strike team could get away. So it was down to both Wards. the parasite, and a Jemma still in her cocoon. As Jemma finally emerged, she saw Grant squeeze the life out of the worm and set its corpse on fire with a touch. Jemma then caught sight of her now-scaly arms, and fainted. She had vague memories of being picked up and carried, Grant with a flaming chain, and Caroline throwing people about like rag dolls. She came back to consciousness feeling awful, with a passed-out Grant in the front seat of a strange automobile, and a curly-haired blonde woman driving through Dallas traffic.Before she could lift the sleeves of her hoodie to look at her hands and arms again, Caroline’s voice echoed from what Jemma could now see was the back of a blonde wig. “Don’t look at yourself right now. Anything you can see, the traffic cameras can see.” Jemma stifled a giggle, as she saw that Grant had a motorcyclist’s “do-rag,” and his facial hair was shaved into a handlebar mustache with a VanDyke beard, something very un-Grant-like. Caroline continued, “When I had that fish pill thing, I was in a yoga and acupuncture phase, and luckily, this acupuncturist knew something about what had happened. I’m taking you guys there. He’s just off the next exit.” Caroline yelled at a driver as she pulled off the freeway, and headed north towards the suburbs. Jemma drifted back off again, and woke up in a plain, cinderblock room, with sturdy furniture, a picture obscuring a metal mirror,  and a hand-crocheted blanket on her bed. She noticed an odd sort of taco on some sort of fried bread had been left on a side table. She was famished, and devoured it, reading the note accompanying the food:

 

_“Enjoy the Taco a’la Gramsy. Sorry about the accommodations, we don’t know what your Gift does yet, and if it’s dangerous. Grant is next door, because we know what his Gift does, and it’s dangerous.After cooking this for you and Grant, I’m going to crash, wake up, and get a mani-pedi before I come back for y’all._

 

_Caroline”_

 

After she finished her food, Jemma tried to remove the picture frame she saw covering a mirror. Strangely, it was hard to remove. She caught glimpses of Grant next door through a thick plexiglass window. He was picking objects up, setting them on fire, then concentrating on the enflamed objects in hopes of dousing the flames. The bruising was gone, and Grant once again looked like that Greek sculpture of some god best avoided. This made Jemma angry for a reason she could not put her finger on at the moment. Grant noticed her movement, walked over to something next to the window, and an intercom Jemma had failed to notice crackled to life. “Jem, are you really sure you want to do this? Do you need me to get Dr Chan in here?” Jemma bristled and found her own comm button. “I am not talking to you, Grant. The idea to put you through terrigenesis was mine, but only to get rid of that Hive thing. I am not a vain woman, and I can handle what has happened. Do you think my having green scales has somehow eluded my notice?” She walked away, determined to see if the crocheted blanket would be an adequate curtain on the window between their rooms. Then she removed the bolts holding the picture frame with the toolkit she always kept in her boot.

 

Her hair was now a flattened-out mohawk, but could be brushed into a semblance of human hair with some work. Her eyes were the same shade as before, and the pupils were not as slitted as she feared. But her skin was indeed covered with scales in varying shades of green, shading into stripes down her back, and her fingernails were no longer flat and human. It wasn’t so bad, it really wasn’t so bad it….. A voice screamed, and Jemma barely recognized it as her own, as she pounded on the metal of the mirror, before picking up everything she could, and flinging it at the mirror. Even Grant’s shadow was no longer visible behind the blanket. After a few minutes, the door opened, and a young man came in. For a moment, she thought it was Grant, but the man was about ten years younger, obviously a different person, and carried that aura of “shrink” Jemma didn’t need Caroline’s telepathy to sense. He mashed the intercom button on the wall and grumbled, “Hey, Ward! I got this. Get some sleep.” He shook his head, as Grant’s shadow disappeared into his own room.He sat on the bed next to Jemma, who was curled up in a ball and crying. “Hello, Jemma. I’m Terry Wilson, just started my Master’s program in Counseling Psychology at SMU. I can’t really claim this as an internship, but I work here with Dr Chan because I learn more here than in my real internship. Don’t be too hard on Ward. We know you had a past, and we actually told him to keep an eye on you. He was very willing to do so, and was quite concerned about you, when he saw how the Mists had changed you.”This had Jemma sitting up, and pinning Wilson with an awful look. “Oh that’s rich coming from Grant Ward. Let me tell you about Grant Ward…”

 

The next morning, she had extracted a promisefrom Wilson that they would find a way to get her own Gift to manifest, and move her out away from Ward, but in return she had to let Ward talk to her. He was to make sure she was handling her changes okay, and she in turn was to keep him from being isolated, as this seemed to trigger Ward somehow. Jemma thought it best not to mention Vault D to Wilson. Wilson had left Jemma some Trader Joe’s Kale Chips, and asked her to write a food diary, so she could learn if her dietary needs had changed with her appearance. The taco from the day before was sort of disagreeing with her, but the steak she had gotten later, with some spring salad, was unusually delicious, and not a problem. In the meanwhile, Grant nattered away. Jemma tried to tune it out, but finally she snapped, “I’m a FREAK, Grant, and all to save your life for your sister. Don’t even try to talk to me like we are friends, when you still appear mammalian! She tried to pierce him with the look she gave Wilson, but she startled when she saw his eyes. They were like black sclera lenses. She regained her composure and snapped, “You can put on sunglasses and not get a second look. I’d need a bloody burqa!” Grant smiled and shook his head, “We’re all freaks here, Jemma. And pardon me for the paraphrase, but if everybody’s a freak, then nobody’s a freak.” Jemma rolled her eyes, “You’re paraphrasing the bad guy from The Incredibles. Appropriate.” Her rant was interrupted by a tap at the door. Caroline was there, with Wilson. Caroline was holding a device, which she put down on the table next to Jemma. She smiled and waved at her brother, indicating she had something for him in her pocket. Wilson placed two glass balls in Jemma’s hands, and he and Caroline looked at a display on the device, nodded, picked up the glass balls, and promised to look at the results and consult with her later. Caroline stayed in the room, and painted Jemma’s toenails and fingernails a shade of green that was admittedly fetching with her scales, as they talked about how to take Jemma shopping in one of Dallas’s famous malls once they determined she didn’t cause random objects to detonate or something. After a while, Caroline left, went next door, and started to keep her brother company. However, Caroline got an urgent call shortly after she handed a small item to her brother, and she had to leave for the evening.

 

Both Jemma and Grant settled in for the night. Some time in the middle of that night, Jemma woke up for a reason she could not contemplate for a moment, She looked up to see Grant in her room with a vulpine grin. “You knew this was going to happen Jemma. You won’t be my friend, and I have to kill you now.” Grant picked up a piece of chain Jemma and Caroline were using earlier to try and rig a plastic chandelier in the room, set it on fire and came at her in the bunk. Her scream echoed down the hallway…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Relax, things aren't what they seem!


	5. Chapter 5

As she dodged the flaming chain, there was a pounding on the wall between Grant’s room and her own, and the temperature started to climb. A second Grant, this one in pajama pants, burned through the wall, brandishing a weight bar that was already on fire. He whacked the first Grant across the head with the burning bar, shoved the dazed man away from Jemma, giving her a clear way to scramble through the hole and away from the fight. As Pajamas-Grant prepared to punch his doppelganger’s lights out, the first Grant morphed into John Garrett, and put the pajama-clad Grant, presumably the real Grant, in a chokehold. Jemma felt a stirring within her. She had no idea what her Gift was, but this shape-shifting blackguard deserved a taste of it sideways up his right nostril. She ran back in and tackled Garrett. Seeing a rare opportunity, she gave Garrett a good elbow in the groin. He cried out, then morphed into Terry Wilson.

The lights came on, Caroline opened Jemma’s door, but Grant was still angry. Something about Grant’s appearance had startled Wilson, and caused him to miss a step as Ward came in to finish Wilson off. Jemma jumped between the two, holding off both angry, sweaty men, who yelled at one another over Jemma’s head. From what she could discern between the shouts, the device from earlier that day was a bluff, and Wilson was to use his Gift of shape-shifting into ones biggest fears in order to scare Jemma into manifesting her Gift. Something in Jemma sensed the chemicals in both men’s sweat, and….. “Both of you SHUT UP!” The room fell silent for a moment, as Jemma looked at her hands. She smelled both hands, and gave Wilson and Ward an odd look. “The proteins in both of your sweat are nearly identical. Are you…related?” The reaction was visible from young Wilson, who blurted out, “Boston General Hospital, August 18, 1995. I was adopted by the Wilsons five days later. Massachusetts Children’s Home. Are…are you my father?” Grant seemed to be at a loss, but Caroline answered, “No, Grant is your uncle. I’m your birth-mother Terry. And Jem, catch! Caroline tossed her ring with the huge red stone she always wore. As Jemma caught it, touched it and concentrated……”It’s natural and nearly flawless, Carrie. I can’t believe you would wear something like this every day.” Terry Wilson was apologetic after he regained his composure. “I am so sorry, Jemma. We didn’t know your Gift, and didn’t want to move you out and upstairs until we were sure you didn’t, like, detonate people’s heads or something. But now we know, you can sense the chemical composition of anything you hold in your hands. If you still want to move upstairs…” As Terry could not help but look at his newly-discovered birth mother, Jemma could not keep her eyes off Grant Ward. Grant, for his part was about to shrug and slink off to his room through the hole he had hacked and burned into the wall. Jemma grabbed his arm. “I think I’m going to be safe down here for one more night. Grant has been at the centre of all my fears, but when he really thought I was in danger, he….he tore down a wall to defend me. I think we are overdue for a very long talk. Probably not as overdue as you and your mother are.”


End file.
